Gordon Orville Young

October 23, 1937 – January 13, 2021

Simple, deliberate, loved to laugh, excellent problem-solver and counselor, the most reliable man anyone ever knew, and absolutely loved the Lord, who loved him back. Gordon Young passed away peacefully at 83 years of age, maintaining courage and dignity through heart failure and Parkinson’s disease. He never blinked. Gordon learned to be a family man, having lost his mother at the age of three. His father did the best he could with three small children, but needed help and turned to the Masonic Children’s Home in his suburban Chicago community. Gordon and his older sister and brother, Georgetta and Edward, spent their formative years in the care of the home, with weekly visits from their father, Orville.

He graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa, where he lettered in baseball and basketball and served as the president of his dorm. He began medical college thereafter, and was drafted into the U.S. Army Medical Specialists Corps in 1960. As an officer and physical therapist, he did tours in Frankfurt, West Germany, Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC, and Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado. Returning to civilian life in 1963, Gordon promptly courted his best friend John England’s younger sister, Sharon. They married in 1964, as Gordon left physical therapy and entered law school. He entered federal service, retiring in 1997 as an executive with the Internal Revenue Service, where he won awards for reducing the size of bureaucracies he encountered.

The apples of his eye were his daughter and son, Kristen and Todd. Whether coaching sports or negotiating the purchase of a go-cart, Gordon taught with love and invested his time with his children with passion. He acknowledged the many miracles in his life, attributing them to God. A church leader, he was a persistent volunteer in church life, and studied Scripture over many years. As those who prayed with him knew, God always gave an attentive ear to Gordon’s earnest prayers, his wife Doris by his side.

Gordon Young enters eternity with love given and received, goals met, and peace in the knowledge that his faith endures in his family and those who knew his generous heart and spirit. He is survived by wife Doris, son Todd and daughter-in-law Lynn, daughter Kristen and son-in-law John (Sean) Meyers, sister Georgetta and brother-in-law George Rediehs and grandchildren Morgan Racke, John Meyers, Lindsay Young, Olivia Young, Doris’ daughter Pam Mork, her husband, David Mork, and their children, Joshua, Hannah, Rebekah, Leah. And several nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, Gordon requested donations be made to Roswell Assembly of God, 11440 Crabapple Rd, Roswell, GA 30075. www.Roswellag.org/give